Today’s episode is about the outdoors and space: how we seek out the outdoors as a reset for our troubles; and how we negotiate physical space with our fellow humans, harmoniously or otherwise. Features:Pride...

Today’s episode is the fourth in the Notes from a small house series – short tales of life in and around a small house chock full of animals, people and stuff. The theme is habits – the patterns we find ourselves ...

Today’s episode is the third in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. The theme is misaligned perceptions – how something perfectly reasona...

Today’s episode is the second in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features:Reverse sibling psychologyPhotodynamic face-melting thera...

Today’s episode is the first in a series called Notes from a small house – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features:Inexact questionsKids being lawyersAn avalan...

Today’s episode is the second part of a two-part series on language, looking at phrases we use all the time, but which on closer examination are a bit weird, misleading or funny. Features:Bears, hares and wondering where – no...

Today’s episode is about language and working out what things mean – generally by saying the wrong things first, and then looking back on them to either laugh or cringe. Features:Blurts and faux pas – when you don’t know...

Today’s episode is about hitchhiking, and that choice you have to make when someone pulls over to give you a ride: Should I trust this person? Listen to four tales where this was a difficult question to answer. Note: Contains R-rated...

Today’s episode is about work. It chronicles a series of jobs that I thought were terrible at the time, although perhaps I should have given them more of a chance. I was young, and didn’t yet have much of a work ethic. Features: 

Today’s episode is about teaching, including what it’s like to be a teacher, plus the impression we might form of our own teachers. Features:A story of teaching in Japan and trying to melt the ice with difficult colleagues

Today’s episode is about school and a little about hard luck – negotiating the slings and arrows of a boarding school in the nineties, and finding the humour in all of it. Features:Some background notes on what school ...

Today’s episode is about names – the names we choose for ourselves, and how we might “make a name for ourselves”. Features:The story behind the name “Without a hitch”A troupe of guys all called John, how I distinguis...

Today’s theme is impressions. What feelings or impressions do you get when you first meet someone, or experience something for the first time? What things stay with you, and what effect do they have on you?Features a housesitter c...